Chapter 115 Experience

Chapter 115 Experience

Chapter 115 Experience
He and Xue Baoping returned to Xue's house from the back door. As soon as they entered the small door, Xue Baoping immediately hugged him tightly: "Why are you back? Did you get it?"

"Well, I'm fully prepared now. I said before I left that I'm just going on a long journey, it's not like I'll never come back." Li Wuxiang held her hand and looked at the house as they walked - there were still traces of flooding on the walls, but most of it had been renovated. It should be the former house of the Li family.

Xue Baoping lived in the middle courtyard, and the front was turned into a martial arts training ground. Li Wuxiang walked over to take a look and found that wooden man piles, stone locks and stone plates, wooden swords and spears were all available. It really looked like a martial arts hall.

Not long after, the Chen family sent food. Judging from the expression and movements of the person who sent the food, it should be like this all the time - no wonder he felt that Xue Baoping looked much better than a month and a half ago. A body that practices martial arts and has enough nutrition will bloom all of a sudden.

The two of them ate slowly in the room, and Li Wuxiang listened to Xue Baoping's story about the past month. She was in high spirits, with bright eyes, no longer the worried and frightened little girl when they first met.

"…There are very few people with good aptitude. I know my aptitude is not good, but there is no one better than me. Some people are like me, and they are very good at swordsmanship, but when it comes to meditation and breathing, only three people can feel the energy, and they are so vague that they don’t even know whether they have it or not."

"What about you? How does it feel to be meditating now?"

Xue Baoping took a look at the rice in the bowl and stammered, "Well, that's right, I felt uncomfortable in my stomach more than ten days ago--"

——He would burp, have diarrhea, and fart. Li Wuxiang knew that this was a matter of the early stage of foundation building. This was after he had the sense of Qi and had gained Qi.

He nodded: "Now?"

"Then I felt sore, swollen, and numb all over my body until two days ago. Is this a sign of ventilation? Brother Zeng told me this."

"Correct."

"I just feel a little uncomfortable now. My body hurts, and some of the places where I fell and bumped when I was a child also hurt a lot. So now, is it..."

"The Qi is rushing to the diseased area." Li Wuxiang exhaled, "You have reached the final stage of foundation building. The vital energy has opened up your meridians, and is now uncovering the hidden diseases and injuries in your body and healing them all. You will feel very uncomfortable at this stage, but you must endure it. You are still young, and you won't have too many hidden diseases. It may take half a month to heal. After half a month, you will be reborn and reach the stage of Qi refining."

He laughed: "Who said you have bad aptitude? It is usually said that it takes a hundred days to build a foundation, but you only took two months."

Xue Baoping's eyes lit up: "Really?! So, I'm not a bad person, but you guys are too nice?"

"Haha, almost."

In fact, it was because of the technique Zeng Jianqiu gave her. That technique was also mentioned in the Shijie Collection.

There are two broad categories of cultivation aptitude. One category is those who can successfully build a foundation by themselves using various common techniques in the world, which is considered good. The other category is like Xue Baoping, who finds it difficult to achieve success using normal techniques, and this category accounts for the vast majority of people.

So the technique Zeng Jianqiu passed on to her was called "Changsheng Gong". People with relatively good aptitudes could use this method to easily build a foundation, treat injuries and illnesses, and prolong their lives. But the drawback was that after building a foundation, it was difficult to make further progress when it came to Qi Refining.

But Li Wuxiang now understands that he must protect the Li family...Jinshui Bay.

His cultivation now depends on the power of incense and vows. Although he can attach his divine thoughts to statues elsewhere, some statues may also be occupied by spirits, and he will have to fight fiercely again. Moreover, that ray of divine thoughts will gradually fade over time, and he can't keep running around.

But there is a trustworthy town master here, people like Xue Baoping, and townspeople who respect him. If he can defend this place and make it prosperous, it can be considered his basic base - in the worst case scenario, if he really dies like a cocoon one day, the incense here can help him turn things around quickly.

Therefore, we must avoid incidents like what happened to Qiu Gongfeng from happening again.

The solution is to make Jinshuiwan no longer a simple village. Many of the noble families and sects other than the thirty-six sects follow this path - a person is lucky enough to enter the threshold of cultivation, then accept disciples and pass on the Dharma, slowly cultivating more practitioners, so that they can soar to the sky and no longer be bullied.

He reached into his arms and took out the pills he got from Feiyun Temple one by one and placed them on the table: "I got a lot of good stuff. When you reach the Qi Refining stage, you can take these pills. I will slowly teach you how to take them tonight."

"how about you?"

"I don't rely on these things anymore, don't worry." Li Wuxiang thought for a moment, "Do you still remember Zhao Qi?"

"Ah."

"What do you think of him as a person?"

Xue Baoping looked up at him for a while, then hesitated a little: "He's a little pitiful, but also hateful. Many people have died in this town in the past month. Has he... also become an immortal like Zhao Kui?"

It seems that we have to wait a little longer. Li Wuxiang shook his head: "No, since he has done so many bad things, he should still be suffering."

After they finished their meal, Xue Baoping cleared the table and made the bed for him. They sat in the yard for a while, talking a lot, before returning to their rooms.

Li Wuxiang's room was well-furnished, with a bed, desk, antique shelf, and everything else, arranged in the same way the Li family used to be. He found paper and pen, opened the Shijie Collection, and wrote down many common senses in it on paper.

One benefit of practicing is that one's control over oneself becomes extremely precise. He was not very fast at writing before, but when he picked up the pen again, he felt that he had become a machine from his previous life - the speed of writing could almost keep up with his thoughts, and the only thing that would be slowed down was the time it took to dip the ink and write. In about half an hour, he had written more than a hundred pages, recording everything that did not involve the secrets of the Sword Sect and that he felt would not violate taboos.

He checked again and made sure there were no omissions. He pushed open the door and looked into Xue Baoping's room, where he saw the candle was still on.

He walked to the door and knocked gently. After a while, he heard Xue Baoping say, "Just push the door and come in."

He walked in and found her making the bed, with her back to him and wearing only her midriff.

Li Wuxiang put the stack of papers on the table: "I wrote something for you. You can read it after I leave, but don't show it to others."

There were also pens and ink on the table, and there were words on the paper, which meant she was practicing calligraphy. Xue Baoping hummed as he made the bed, and after he put the pillow in place, he hesitated for a moment, then walked sideways to the cabinet beside the bed, took out another pillow and put it on the bed.

Li Wuxiang was slightly stunned...it seemed that she had misunderstood.

But I was careless, and still thought of her as the little girl I first met. However, she was no longer a little girl. After Zhao Qi took away her life, she was already in her early twenties. Just like now——

She sat down on the bed and looked at him, then slowly turned her face and took off the hairpin on her head. Her smooth black hair fell down, and it must have been washed today, with a faint fragrance.

When her face was turned in profile, her neck and half of her shoulders were exposed at the slightly open neckline of her gown. They were smooth and delicate in the candlelight, with the tightness unique to young flesh, as well as the warmth and beauty of maturity.

Then she crawled under the quilt, lying on the side against the wall, turned to look at him, her eyes gentle and frank: "I'll look at it tomorrow morning."

Li Wuxiang was silent for a while, took two steps away and closed the door, then extinguished the candle with a flick of his fingers, took off his coat, lifted the quilt and lay down.

Xue Baoping rustled in the quilt, turned around and hugged him. Her undergarment had been removed, and her body was hot, soft, and smooth like satin. Li Wuxiang also turned sideways and put his arm under her pillow, holding her in his arms.

He felt very comfortable. The heat from her body slowly soaked through his slightly cool skin, and the tentacles in her body pressed down on him.

She touched his neck gently with her lips and whispered, "I haven't established my foundation yet."

"Well, no rush." ​​He stroked her back gently, "I haven't become a human yet."

She kissed his lips: "When I refine my Qi, we will have plenty of time."

Li Wuxiang rubbed her forehead: "Where does it hurt?"

"Shoulders, chest, waist."

"I'll rub it for you."

In the morning, Li Wuxiang lay on the warm bed, watching Xue Baoping combing his hair at the table and smiling at him in the mirror, his face slightly glowing in the morning light.

This feeling was very novel, like the first time he experienced driving, sailing, flying, skydiving, and hang gliding. There was no disgusting or worrying purpose, just an experience he had never had before and the door to a new world.

In his previous life, he had lay in bed like this many times, watching another person dressing up, but he was just a passer-by at that time, knowing that he would soon leave in a hurry and never see each other again. Unlike now, he did not understand that this would be someone who would accompany each other for a long time.

"I have also joined the Sword Sect. The things on the table are from a book called Shijieji of the Sword Sect. The Sword Sect has rules, so Shijieji cannot be shown to you, so I recorded some of it for you."

Li Wuxiang lifted the quilt and slowly put on his clothes: "I'm leaving soon. I'm going to the diocese with the people of Jianzong to do some work. Zeng Jianqiu will also go. Jianzong... Like I told you last night, no one outside the diocese would want to mess with Jianzong. But——"

Xue Baoping looked at him in the mirror: "Will it be dangerous?"

"It's a small matter - but this is just a general rule. When the conflict of interest reaches a certain level, there is nothing in the world that cannot be provoked. I said yesterday that I just happened to pass by, and you should say the same thing in the future - you have some friendship with me, but the bond is not too deep. And you learned your skills from the Ranshan School."

"Tell Chen Xin to convert another house into a Taoist temple and enshrine Taiyi inside... Oh, I just remembered last night that Zeng Jianqiu had drawn a picture for you and asked the town to go to Qingjiang to build a statue of Taiyi, right? Is it done?"

"It was originally finished, but the town chief sent Chen Xiaodao to take a look. He came back and said that the statue was not well sculpted and looked like the sculptor himself, so it was remade. Then we moved here, and the work was delayed. It was just in time for us to make it according to your drawing."

"Well. After it's done, we'll enshrine Taiyi in the temple and name it...Baoxiang Temple." He saw Xue Baoping staring at the mirror for a moment, then smiled.

"They told the public that this was the Taoist temple that Ranshan had stationed in Jinshui Bay. The person inside was called the temple master. After they set up the temple, they went out to travel."

"Well. Why don't you tell Chen Xin yourself?"

Li Wuxiang smiled and said, "It's better for me not to see him often. If I see him too often, he will lose his sense of mystery and majesty."

He put on his clothes and sat quietly on the bed. He waited until Xue Baoping had finished combing his hair before he spoke: "Okay, I'm leaving. Leave the things I brought for you in my room. Eat the cakes and pastries quickly. We've been on the road for more than ten days."

Xue Baoping came over and hugged him for a while: "You must come back during the New Year."

Two hours later, Li Wuxiang and his horse were on a passenger ship heading west along the Jinshui River.

After leaving the river bend, we passed a series of low hills, and on both sides were towering cliffs. The dense trees on the cliffs cast shadows, almost completely blocking the sun, as if the river had become a dark river.

After this section, the mountains became high again and the river became narrow, so the passenger ship could no longer move forward. So Li Wuxiang got off the boat and rode a horse, slowly looking for the marks left by Pan Muyun and Helian Ji, and continued to walk along the river. After walking for another five or six days, the upper reaches of the Jinshui River turned into a huge waterfall, rushing down from the mountain, making a deafening roar.

He knew that the mountains in front of him that ran from east to west and stretched to the ends of the earth on both sides must be the Qianshan Mountains that Lu Renjia had mentioned.

Ordinary people would turn east from here, and travel more than ten days to Sanhe Pass, and then take three days to pass through the mountains from the main road there. But the swordsmen were obviously impatient to take the long way around, and the sword marks they left were carved on the dark blue cliffs in front of them. So Li Wuxiang also followed the mark and climbed up the mountain, and spent two days and one night in the mountains to reach the top of one of the peaks.

It was noon when we reached the summit and there had been a heavy rain in the morning, so the sky was clear and the view was excellent.

He looked far into the distance on the snowy ground on the top of the mountain and saw that to the north of the Qianshan Mountains was an endless plain, with a river winding over it like a giant dragon, and a few white clouds floating low, casting large shadows on the plain.

A little closer was a meadow, further away was a vast forest, and farther away, at the end of the horizon that he could only vaguely see when he had to squint his eyes, there were some scattered things that looked like villages and towns.

Lu Renjia said that after passing Qianshan, it would take another half a month to see villages and towns. But those villages and towns were not considered parishes yet, so one had to continue walking north for ten days and cross the Cangjiang River to reach the edge of the Five Mountains True Form Church parish.

By this calculation, it takes about one and a half months to travel from the most remote part of the diocese to Jinshui Bay. So for the Liubu Xuanjiao, the location of Jinshui Bay should be considered remote and safe.

So Li Wuxiang held up the golden turban, took a deep breath, and then another breath, repeating this process over and over again, slowly making his body swell up, then he sealed his seven orifices, leaped up, and floated down the mountain.

(End of this chapter)